Follow the crazy adventures of an Alabama cyclist taking on the Race Across America (again) in 2017.

Athens Twilight and Roswell Criterium race reports

Last night when we finally made it back to Birmingham, I couldn’t sleep so I went ahead and analyzed and posted my power and heartrate data. Here are my race reports:

2011 Athens Twilight Summary
Pat Allison and I were the two Tria riders in the race. Pat started at the back of the front group, and I started near the front of the back group, so we ended up starting not too far apart. I was lucky because the guy in front and to the left of me couldn’t clip in which opened up a whole in front of him that allowed me to pass a bunch of people right from the line. I was able to then work my way towards the front by about 20 laps into the race. Pat was just behind me when there was a crash in turn 1. I hit the rider who was on the ground in front of me and flipped up in the air. I came down onto my hand, chin, and knee. I blew out my front tire when I collided with the rider, so I was put back into the race with a new front wheel. Pat also got caught up in the crash. When we got placed back in, Pat went in a lap earlier than me towards the back of the group. I went in a lap later after the mechanics had changed out my flat wheel and gotten my shifters straightened out. They put me back in towards the front 1/3rd of the group. My wrist was really sore, but I was still able to pull up on the handlebars hard enough on the backside hill and fight for position towards the front of the field. I felt great and was always able to pass riders over the top of the backside hill. With 10 laps to go, there was a $100 prime, and as soon as I saw that nobody was sprinting for the prime, I attacked hard up the left side clearing the UHC train just in time to take the prime. I had a lot of momentum, so I went ahead and rolled off the front and stayed away until the top of the hill on the backside of the course. Then I fought hard for position and ended up 26th. Pat used a lot of energy moving back up after getting put back into the race and was still able to fight to finish 47th.

It is so hard to describe the atmosphere surrounding this race, you have to be there and experience it to really appreciate what it is like. With Chad Andrews announcing the race and getting everybody pumped up and over 30,000 people lining the streets, beer gardens, parking decks, hotels, loft windows, bar/restaurant open air second levels all screaming and cheering added to a race that averages 30mph all under the lights, it is easily the biggest adrenaline rush of the entire season. This year’s race was super smooth except for the one crash in turn #1 that unfortunately was just ahead of me. It was definitely the highest average speed for me. My friends Ashley and Stephen from Birmingham (who both graduated from UGA) drove up from Birmingham to watch the race! How cool is that! It was awesome to hear people all the way around the course cheering for me and for my teammate Pat. Thank you everyone!!!! I always tell people that if there is one race of the year to see what fast criterium racing is all about, it would be the Athens Twilight race.

2011 Roswell Criterium Summary
This is normally a safe Pro/1/2 race, but this year there were numerous crashes. I was involved in two of them, and also broke a spoke on Turn #4. That meant that I was in the pit three times during the first half of the race. The first crash that I was in could be described as a fender bender with me running into the back end of the crash. I was able to clip out and catch myself before falling. The second crash was in the exact same spot with riders getting tangled up in front of me on the outside of Turn #2. Neither of them went down, but when they tried to untangle themselves one of them swerved right into me and took me straight into the barriers. My bike stopped for a moment, and I kept going forward flipping through the air. As soon as I knew I was ejected off the bike, I tucked up into a ball and fortunately landed partially on the air cushion that was being used as a barrier. My bike then continued on past me as my rear derailleur had gotten tangled up with somebody else’s bike. I had to walk forward to retrieve my bike. My rear derailleur was really bent, so when I made it back to the pit I was able to get a SRAM neutral bike to restart the race. With about 35 minutes left to go in the race, there was a nasty crash towards the top of the backside hill. It was a Tour de France style crash with the peloton bunched up together and riders in the middle getting tangled up and then taking down everyone near them blocking the entire road. The spectators moved the barriers to help the riders in the back (including me) get around, but when we made it back to the start/finish, the race had been neutralized with an ambulance on the course. I was pretty shaken up from my crash earlier in the race and after not being able to move very far up, I drifted towards the back where I proceeded to cramp up with a lap to go and eased up to cross the finish line behind the main field. There was another crash on the last turn in the last lap, but I was so far back I didn’t see what happened. I just saw riders picking themselves up off the ground after it was over.

Here is a video that my wife took early on in the race: (Look how big the field is!!! I guess that might explain why there were so many crashes)

Also, here are couple good pics that Dave Gearhart got of me in the pit at Roswell…